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Constitutional Court overturns Catalan bill against energy poverty

The bill against energy poverty, passed by the Catalan parliament last December, was meant to protect impoverished families during the winter months by forbidding electricity and gas cuts on those households with difficulties to keep up with their energy bills.

The Spanish government appealed against the decree, arguing that such a decision was discriminative to non-Catalan households and that the Catalan chamber didn’t have the powers to legislate on energy matters, and this week the Spanish Constitutional Court has accepted the Mariano Rajoy’s appeal.

The Catalan government has criticised the Spanish government’s reaction as “lacking sensitivity” towards impoverished families. […] “The Spanish executive doesn’t take action nor doesn’t allow us to do so”, Catalan minister of Industry Felip Puig declared, as he reminded that the Spanish ministry of Industry has yet to adapt two European directives seeking to assure citizens basic services in certain circumstances. “It’s not only a juridical attack on self-government, but it is also an attack to social cohesion and against the most vulnerable citizens, he said, following the announcement that the Catalan executive will fight for the reversal of the Court decision”.